Does the Gospel Work?

In the past 6 months, I feel like I have been waking up to seeing God’s truth in Scripture about His vision of Christian community. In many ways, I feel like I have been living with a false sense of community. Some of the relationships I thought were the most important in my life have turned out to be more superficial than I thought. I have looked back on my own treatment of friendships, and realize I have been reluctant to go to deep places, reluctant to reveal my heart and my mess, reluctant to pursue friends when things got awkward or difficult, reluctant to go through the inconvenience of re-ordering my life to make room for real friendship, and generally terrible about remaining in good contact with people who mean a lot to me. I also have felt the sting of feeling abandoned, ignored, misunderstood, cut off, and feeling like a source of shame by people whom I had considered to be my community.

Through Scripture, prayer, deep conversations with Kristian and other friends, and awesome teaching from our church (Grace Fellowship Puget Sound), I am realizing that real community is more than belonging to a common club, sharing similar beliefs, doing things together, or sharing pieces of our heart. It is easy to be in relationship with people when we always agree on the big things, or when we don’t allow them to see our sin and struggles, or when they have never hurt us. What happens when we disagree? What happens when our brother sees our sin? What happens when we see our brother’s sin? What happens when we are hurt or mistreated? What happens when we hurt and mistreat others?

In short, does the gospel work?

(to be continued)

P.S. If anyone else is thinking about these things or asking the same questions, I'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, comments, etc. in the comments section.